More Pix

Waiting for the snow storm to hit this evening. I have to be honest and say that I'm slightly hopeful that I'll get snowed in and won't be able to come to work tomorrow...Not because I don't love my clients but because I've kind of been avoiding too much time at home and I think I need more of that. 

Yesterday, Maddy came over for dinner and we watched the Superbowl while she did her homework. She was funny because she looked like some computer dweeb working on two computers! 

I finally figured out how to get the internet through my fancy new phone since I don't have wireless in my apartment. Maddy had to use my computer for online stuff and hers for her homework. That's the tree of knowledge sprouting from the top of her head. 

 

My bedroom's getting cozy-er and cozy-er. I fashioned a "headboard" out of mirrors. Better than a blank white wall and cheaper than a real headboard since I took them from home.

I've gotten some canvasses and will be painting these mandalas (in colors -- blue, silver, brown, white). They'll hang across from my bed.

 

Sarah sent me a link to mandalazone.com so I stole these from that site. As circles, mandalas are symbols of perfection and are also used in spiritual practices in many cultures. Jung thought they were a symbol of our unconscious. I wanted to use the mandalas but make them off-centered because that reflects what's going on inside of me right now. I do feel a kind of spiritual, personal awakening but I also feel thrown off center and pushed into a time of upheaval. It's kind of an interesting phase in my life where I do feel some hope and energy but am also in pain and struggling.  I plan to alter the trunk of the tree. (No offense to my lesbian friends but I'm not all that interested in waking up to a vulva every morning.)   :-)

I read an amazing book once called House as a Mirror of Self. The author is an architect who specializes in the meaning of place. She also has a book called Housing as if People Mattered where she writes about medium density family housing - she really connects architecture with the people who inhabit it. Anyway, House as a Mirror of Self talks about how our homes reflect who we (and our housemates) are. For example, think of which places in your home are "yours" and which places belong to others. How do the decorations and furnishings reflect who you are (or not)?  What kinds of power struggles are played out in your home's design and furnishings? How attached are you to your home? How is your home now similar to or different from where you grew up?

For me, right now, the world feels both full of promise and off kilter; hopeful and full of despair. I have trouble listening to NPR (or any news) these days because it's all so depressing but then I have therapy sessions with people whose resilience astounds me. I feel a responsibility to witness the stories of people in the world who are suffering but also feel like I want to nest and cocoon in my safe little privileged haven. It's definitely a privilege to have a home (well, right now, actually, two homes!) where I can create a place of calm and a place that mirrors me back. 

I'll post progress on the mandala art. I'm feeling weird again about writing a blog. Seriously, who cares?! I'm just narcissistic enough to see my own writing and photos up on the screen, though, so I'll probably keep posting.